Vienna International Professional Services Industry News

Read the latest headlines about developments in the international service industry in Vienna and Austria

Raiffeisen Invests in New Branches in the Czech Republic

Raiffeisenbank a.s., the fifth largest bank in the Czech Republic, expands its network of branches in the neighboring country.

September 29, 2010

Insolvent AvW Invest AG Cannot Submit Financial Statements

The Carinthian financial company AvW, belonging to Wolfgang Auer-Welsbach who is in custody, cannot provide the necessary documents to prepare its financial statements.

September 29, 2010

BayernLB has to Wait 7 Years for 3.9 Billion from Carinthia

After the debacle of the Hypo Group Alpe Adria (HGAA), the Bayerische Landesbank will have to wait up to 7 years for the repayment of the 3.9 billion euro. The repayment plan provides for this period.

September 28, 2010

Insolvencies: Declining Trend for Both Companies and Individuals

KSV expects 10% less insolvencies for 2010, but warns about the consequences of fiscal budget adjustment.

September 28, 2010

Vienna Stock Exchange - Launch of Three Net Dividend Indices

The Vienna Stock Exchange launched three new indices today: ATX Net Total Return (ATX NTR), CECE Net Total Return (CECE NTR) and RDX Net Total Return (RDX NTR).

September 28, 2010

Austrian Real Estate: Increased supply of 339%

Office space supply is on rise, but demand is lagging behind. Prime rents and yields went down y/y.

September 27, 2010

CEE Real Estate: Outlook is brightening

CEE real estate stocks are currently in a phase of brisk corporate action. Financially sound companies with attractive assets are interesting takeover targets, while other companies are being taken over.

September 27, 2010

Meinl Bank Pays 6 Million Euro: Airport Intl. and Power Intl. Reach a Partial Agreement

Meinl Bank and International Power pull back all the claims against each other, except those in the arbitration court.

September 27, 2010

Immofinanz: Net Income Decreases by 57%

Immofinanz AG showed half as much profit in the first quarter after its merger, as a lasting non-recurring effect from the first quarter. Earnings per share diluted after the merger with Immoeast.

September 27, 2010

Bank Austria: Primeo-investor Wins in First Instance

An investor asked Bank Austria to sell her Primeo participation two months before the Madoff fraud was busted, but Bank Austria has not paid up yet.

September 27, 2010

Austrian Financial Services Discover Immigrants as Customers

Around 1.47 million people living in Austria have a migration background. Therefore, immigrants are an important target group for business. Domestic banks have also been getting into the so-called ethnic banking recently.

September 24, 2010

UniCredit: Andrea Orcel is Possible Successor to Profumo

Andrea Orcel, chief executive of the Global Banking and Markets division of Bank of America Merrill Lynch is rumored to be the favorite in the race to succeed the retiring UniCredit CEO Alessandro Profumo.

September 24, 2010

Elsner Provides Help in Finding Missing Bawag Funds

Former BAWAG CEO wants to clarify the fate of 1.7 billion euro of failed investments allegedly made by the speculator Wolfgang Flöttl to the detriment of BAWAG.

September 24, 2010

Vienna Insurance Group - Pre-tax profit forecast of 10 percent expected for 2010 and 2011

During the meeting of the supervisory board of the Vienna Insurance Group AG, the managing board advised that the target increase in pre-tax profit of at least 10 percent for the current business year is to be attained as planned.

September 24, 2010

C-Quadrat stake held by AvW to be sold by auction

The liquidator of AvW Gruppe AG has decided, that the 32.59% stake in C-Quadrat Investment AG (1.422.365 shares) will be sold by auction on October 13, 2010.

September 24, 2010

Austria Continues Being the Largest Investor in Romania

"Romania is an important market in Eastern Europe for the Austrian economy. Its great importance for us is proved by the fact that Austria is by far the largest investor in Romania"

September 23, 2010

Uniqa: Boss Klien Will Leave Mid-2011

The Supervisory Board of Uniqa has decided that CEO Konstantin Klien (59) will retire prematurely in mid 2011.

September 22, 2010

Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) Declined by 80%

Participation in companies and real estate are attractive, but Austrian firms are reluctant to make acquisitions in Eastern Europe.

September 22, 2010

Madoff Fund Report: Enormous Fees Without Any Value Added

After 9.5 years, 50,000 euro would have been eaten up by the "Primeo Select Fund" because of the high fees, is the opinion of an investors’ lawyer about the monies invested by Bank Austria with Bernie Madoff.

September 22, 2010

Profumo Resigns: Bank Austria’s Parent Group UniCredit Under Pressure

The surprise departure of UniCredit CEO Alessandro Profumo is the talk of the town in the financial industry, also in Austria.

September 22, 2010

CEE Banking Sector Report: Still More Credit Losses in the East

The number of bad loans is expected to increase considerably in some Eastern European countries, a Raiffeisen-analysis shows.

September 21, 2010

Martin Schlaff: Acquisition of Several Latvian Oil Transport Companies Planned

After four years of delay Schlaff is reported to be planning the takeover of several Latvian transport companies.

September 20, 2010

Austria's Management and Supervisory Boards’ Salaries on the Test Bench

The partly state-run OMV had the most expensive board of all Austrian corporations in 2009. In total, the oil company spent 10.2 million euro on its bosses, 23.4% more than the previous year.

September 20, 2010

ÖIAG: ÖVP vs. SPÖ

Schieder and Rudas demand dissolution of the state holding ÖIAG, Finance Minister Pröll, on the other hand, wants to “strengthen” it.

September 17, 2010

CESEE Bank Conference: Joint Supervisory Academy in Vienna

Finance Minister Josef Pröll wants to create common standards for the CEE region with an Eastern Bank Supervisory Academy in Vienna.

September 17, 2010

Hypo Alpe Adria: Greek Entrepreneur Xeniadis Signals his Interest in Buying

The Greek businessman Vasileios Xeniadis is prepared to offer 1.35 billion euro for Hypo Alpe Adria.

September 16, 2010

OeNB: First-time Increase of Banks’ Total Assets Since End of 2008

By the end of June 2010 the unconsolidated total assets of the reporting banks in Austria amounted to 1037.98 billion euro.

September 16, 2010

FMA publishes Q2 report on insurance industry

After getting off to a strong start in 2010, Austria's insurance industry has enjoyed a solid second quarter. Premium revenues grew in all balance sheet groups.

September 15, 2010

Volksbank Vorarlberg: High Losses in Switzerland

Commitment to financial advisor JML did not go as desired: losses up to 3.9 million euro

September 15, 2010

Investkredit and ÖVAG: As Of Now, They Have a Common Board

In addition to CEO Gerald Wenzel, Wolfgang Perdich, Martin Fuchsbauer and Michael Mendel are also members of the common board. The merger of both financial institutions is to take place in early 2011.

September 15, 2010

FMA and OeNB Welcome the Basel III Agreement

The package draws the right lessons from the financial crisis and provides for reasonable transition periods.

September 14, 2010

Russian Fund Accuses RZB of Money Laundering

The Russian fund Hermitage Capital, which has been at loggerheads with the Russian authorities for years owing to a major tax fraud case, now accuses the Raiffeisen Zentralbank (RZB) for having aided and abetted the money laundering.

September 14, 2010

Hypo: 700,000 € go from Berlin to KPMG

The auditing firm, formerly headed by the current Hypo-boss Kranebitter, received more money than previously known.

September 13, 2010

Erste Bank intends to become Austria´s leading bank by 2015

Erste Bank, the banking unit of Erste Group responsible for Austria, announced that it was planning to overtake Raiffeisen and become Austria´s leading bank by 2015.

September 10, 2010

Hypo Alpe-Adria-Bank - The new Group Press Officer

Dominic Köfner to take on the role of Group Press Officer for Hypo Alpe-Adria-Bank International AG (HGAA)

September 9, 2010

Horváth & Partners Study - CEE remains attractive

A new study of the Horváth & Partners Management Consultants studied the success factors for setting up the subsidiaries of production sites in CEE.

September 8, 2010

VBAG Group result for the first half of 2010: positive development continued

In the second quarter of 2010, Österreichische Volksbanken-AG (VBAG) Group confirmed the turnaround of the first quarter.

September 3, 2010

CA Immo International completes first phase of DIY store OBI in Romania

Construction phase one of the retail development project in Sibiu has been concluded - DIY store OBI opens with 9,700 sqm of usable space.

September 2, 2010

UBM with slightly improved results

Focus on hotels and housing, regional focus remains on Poland and Germany.

August 31, 2010

Raiffeisen Centrobank AG - Interim Financial Report released

Raiffeisen Centrobank made the biggest contribution to the result of the group with a profit after tax of EUR 14.401 mn.

August 31, 2010

Kommunalkredit back in black

Kommunalkredit AG earned €7.5m ($9.5) net, in the first half of 2010. It is the first period since the split in November 2009; a comparison with the previous year is therefore limited.

August 30, 2010

TeleTrader decreases loss, raises revenues slightly

TeleTrader, a stock-listed IT service provider, posted in H1 2010 a loss on ordinary activities of EUR 62,000 (US$ 48,819), which was slightly better than the loss in H1 2009 (EUR 170,000/US$ 215,900).

August 30, 2010

Investkredit back in black

Institute earned €9.6m ($12.24) in the first 6 months.

August 30, 2010

Austrian Banks in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe

According to a recent comparative study from the Austrian Central Bank (OeNB), the long-term commitment of Austrian banks in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe (CESEE) offers good prospects.

August 27, 2010

Raiffeisen Evolution shifting back

The real estate developer Raiffeisen evolution (RE) was significantly affected by the uncertainty in the property markets in 2009.

August 26, 2010

Allianz Austria registers profits

Allianz Austria has improved its half year results by around 45 per cent, which amounts to pre-crisis levels.

August 25, 2010

Eco Business back in black

The listed Eco Business Immobilien AG registers positive numbers in the first half of the year.

August 24, 2010

Meinl Bank compensates MEL-investors

The next 600 small investors may get back a third of their losses with MEL-papers. Overall Meinl Bank wants to pay out 3.2m ($4) and then retrieve the money from financial institutions.

August 20, 2010

VIG registers higher semi annual profit

The Vienna Insurance Group (VIG) earned €209.8m ($266) in the first half of 2010, which is over ten percent more than a year ago. While more premiums were taken up, paid benefits decreased.

August 20, 2010

AWD back in black

The financial services group AWD Holding AG returned to profitability and achieved a profit before interest and taxes (EBIT) of €20.4m. In the same period last year AWD had at deficit of €10.3m, the EBIT margin is at 7.8 percent.

August 18, 2010